The Noir Style
by Girl in Blue
Summary: I knew Sam was capable of being violent when she was out in a situation she didn’t want to be in. But murder? That had been a conclusion I didn’t want to reach. It was impossible for me to see my Sam, the child I grew up with, suddenly committing a crime.
1. Chapter 1

**The Noir Style**

_**Chapter One**_

It was one of those lazy nights after work. I'm Danny Fenton a.k.a. Danny Phantom, a very successful ghost hunter thanks to a trick I have up my sleeve. I'm half ghost or halfa as they know me in the Ghost Zone. I've been half ghost since I was a freshman in high school because of an accident in my parent's lab. Over the years I became the city protector, a hero and when money became an issue, I opened a ghost hunting office together with my best friend: Tucker Foley.

That fateful night, Tucker decided to leave before closing time to catch up with some paper work at home which gave him an excuse to spend some quality time with his three years old son, Cole. Cole's mother never married Tucker and disappeared before her child turned two. Tucker was sad, which led him to be even closer to his son and the two of them now were inseparable. I gotta admit I've liked being called Uncle Danny since Cole learned how to say it.

But that still made me slightly angry that Tucker got to go home to his son leaving me to pay a visit to Walker's Ghost Prison to deliver the criminals of the day. Lucky, the Fenton Portal to the Ghost Zone now lies in my living room, hidden behind a painting. I got the idea to hide it there from my arch enemy Vlad Masters. I don't have much space in my dusty and dark apartment.

I collected all the papers and descriptions of the next jobs I had lined up for the week so I could read them at home, after a hot bath to sooth my sore muscles, my intentions were to sit on the couch, drink some hot soup that tasted bitter every time. I'm a lousy cook. I depend on pizzas and noodles to survive.

When I closed the office and locked the door I realized how dark it was outside. The streetlights weren't on and just the crescent moon was there to make me see where I was going to. There wasn't a single person on the street, like expected when I left the office past midnight just for the pleasure to not have to stay home and fight the insomnia.

The atmosphere felt creepy, almost dangerous and I had enough experience to know when it's the perfect mood for a ghost to show up, so I stayed alert and kept my eyes open to any suspicious shadow on my way home.

It wasn't my eyes that were useful to catch something strange, but my well trained ears that captured the sound of high heels clinking on the pavement with steady and rushed steps right behind me. I knew how to recognize a real lady walking, having dealt with them for quite a few years.

I finally reached a street where the lights were on, even if it was still dark and dangerous. I turned around the corner and stood still waiting for the lady to catch up with me. If she turned the street, I'd be a hundred percent sure she was following me.

Just as I anticipated, she turned around the corner and as soon as she saw me standing there, with my hands on my jacket pockets and waiting for her, she stopped abruptly, still hid in the shadows so I couldn't see more than her face's outline.

She was wearing a winter coat and a hat that made me oddly remember a scene from Casablanca where Ingrid Bergman always wore coats and big hats. Those hats… curse them for coming back into the fashion business in the last season, because of that hat I couldn't see who my stalker was and I couldn't have been prepared for a blast of the past that it neatly covered.

"I don't appreciate people following me, lady." I said in a cold voice, expecting her to suddenly rip off the act and jump on me like a ghost would.

"Not even if it's an old friend?" The lady's voice caught me off guard. While I was expecting a ghost attack which I would have to handle without even getting paid for, I was in a loss of words when I recognized her. I would recognize her even if she had been gone for fifty years and I was lucky it had only been five.

And then she stepped into the light and I had a perfect clear sight of her face. She looked like she hadn't aged a single day since she left. She was still stunning beautiful with her black hair now with elegant waves and a slim figure that could make a guy drop on his knees just to watch her pass by.

Her flawless face was a little more tanned then I remembered and her lips looked a tad fuller with cappuccino colored lipstick instead of the purple ones I had seen her wear my whole life. It wasn't her manicured fingernails, or the diamonds on her ears that caught my attention, but the odd look on her amethyst eyes. She had always had a confident and smarty-pants look, but that night all I saw was a vulnerable girl who tried to hide how desperate she was behind a glance of indifference.

"Samantha Manson…" I whispered to myself, still dazzled from her sudden apparition.

"I'm not 'Sam' to you anymore?" She asked in a slow tone. Coming from her, I knew it was a tease, but she showed more insecurity in that small question than any desire to tick me off like the old good times.

"You don't look like my old Sam." I replied. She lowered her eyes to the pavement when I said that and I felt like kicking my own guts for being harsh when she had been nothing but polite. It was when I realized I was still hurt that she had left me. All those years had passed by and I couldn't get over it even if I had trained myself to believe in the opposite. "I know a very good coffee shop near here that stays open twenty four hours a day. Would you care to join me?"

I wasn't just trying to apologize, without sinking low enough to actually voice an apology; I was also trying to get her to eat something. I hadn't seen her in years, but I knew her enough to realize when she's about to pass out of starvation.

"I'd be glad to." She replied softly waiting for me to guide her to the coffee shop. I thought about offering her my hand to break the icy politeness that revolved around us, but I just turned around and started walking, one step ahead of her. I wasn't ready to break the politeness just yet; I wasn't ready to see my best friend showing up on that pretty face that soon.

She followed me quietly, but her steps weren't as strong as they were five minutes before. Her heels didn't echo around the street announcing a lady walking by. Now her steps were quiet, like a kid who had just gotten grounded.

I am a petty person. I know how to hold a grudge and I will never forget that cold winter night when she told me she was leaving. It had been on her birthday and I had gotten her the biggest teddy bear I could manage and Tucker had just gotten her a cereal bar. I was ready to tell her about my plans to open the Ghost Hunting Office when she told me the news.

The next week she left on a plane to Africa to do volunteer work for UN, helping civil war refugees to live as decently as they could manage. I knew what she was doing was a beautiful thing, something she had always wanted to do and be respected for it, but I couldn't help but feel like she had chosen a bunch of strange kids over our years of friendship. I felt betrayed, but she never knew that.

Five years can change someone. I just hoped she hadn't realized how cranky I had become.

We didn't exchange any more words until we were seated at the coffee shop, by the window, so we had something to look at when staring in the eyes would become uncomfortable between us.

The waitress, who disgustingly chewed gum with her mouth open, approached our table taking out a small notebook to write down our orders. I didn't let Samantha even look at the menu and ordered for her.

"Bring a vegetarian sandwich and a light coke for the kid here." I said and she looked at me slightly surprised that I had called her a kid. "I just want a simple black coffee and make it strong, please." It was going to be a long night.

"How is Tucker?" She asked quietly once the waitress had left. She beautifully reached up and took off her hat, placing it on top of her purse. I watched mesmerized as her hair fell over her shoulders, reminding me of a peaceful waterfall design. Her wavy hair matched her style much better than when she wore it straight.

"He's at his apartment right now. He left the Office sooner to spend time with Cole." I said without even realizing that maybe Tucker didn't want her to find out about his life through me. But it was already too late to fix it.

"Who is Cole?" She asked quietly, playing with the salt container over the table.

"His three years old." I answered and warned her with a dry tone that I wasn't willing to answer any more questions about Tucker's life. She caught my unspoken message, like she always did and silence once more fell over our heads and just like I had predicted, I couldn't stare at her eyes anymore.

I watched her through the window's glass reflection and I saw her doing the same. I could see her discreetly biting her lower lip and smiled to myself on my mind. She had always done that since we met as kids. She was nervous about something and I needed to find out why she had returned to Amity Park and why she was following me on the streets.

The waitress brought our orders and I was glad to have some more time to watch her as she ate her sandwich slowly and delicately even if she was about to pass out of hungriness. I sipped my coffee for about ten minutes until she was done and I finished it with one big gulp.

It was time to stop the act and go straight to business.

"Why are you here?" I asked looking straight into her eyes so deep that I knew she couldn't avoid a truthful answer. Whenever I looked at her like that I could read her thoughts and all the emotions troubling her soul like she was an open book.

I knew she had no reason to come back to Amity Park. Her parents had passed away six months before she left, in a tragic plane crash. She had said she was going to Africa to get over their deaths and pursuit her dream. She had no more living relatives in our town or anywhere else in the world so the only reason why she decided to return was to see old friends and exorcize old demons.

"I wanted to see if you still were in the ghost hunting business." She said casually, leaning back on the chair, trying to show me she was comfortable even if she really wasn't. "You should work on a website. It would save me the trouble of leaving Italy just to find out the answer."

"I thought you were still in Africa." I knew she was playing mind games with me. She wouldn't cross the world just out of curiosity to find out if I still worked on the business she abandoned; just to see if I still was the town hero.

"I moved to Venice three years ago." She replied simply, making it hard for me to distinguish anything else on her tone. She had learned how to shut down from my mind reading. She had learned how to keep me in the dark and become Mr. Clueless again.

"So why did you need to know if I still was a ghost hunter?" I asked straightly, deciding that it was time to come clear about our intentions, even if I wasn't ready to come clear about our emotions.

"I want to hire you." She said simply, taking her coke can and quietly sipping what was left of the drink.

"I thought you were perfectly capable of taking care of yourself when it came to ghosts." I retorted and she snorted in a ladylike manner, rolling her eyes with humor. That reaction got deep under my skin, making me really furious that she could react like that. She was the one who left with three Fenton Bazooka's on her luggage; she never had a problem handling ghosts.

"My weapons were spent long ago. I ran out of ammunitions three months after I arrived in Africa and they became useless. I haven't fought a ghost in a long time and believe me, if there was another way I wouldn't be here asking your help." For someone who had been quiet and shy the whole night, that could be considered a rant. My weaker side realized how much I had missed her daring voice.

"Is this ghost a criminal?" I sighed; my head started hurting and I realized how much I needed sleep. "If he hasn't stolen, broken or hurt anything or anyone I can't capture him. I have a deal with Walker now. I just catch criminals."

"Do I look like I would trouble myself to look for you if it wasn't a criminal?" She asked me sincerely and I could see that she had been hurt from my lack on interest in that case. I didn't want her to hire me, I didn't need her to hire me; I had enough expensive cases on my office's drawer so I wouldn't have to do it for money. But I gave up my internal battle and I agreed to help her even before I could voice my decisions aloud. While my heart was weak when it came about that girl, my body was stubborn and resisted her challenge.

"Sam…" I sighed heavily once more and the fact that I had called her by the old nickname made her visibly relax. I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes so I wouldn't look at her. It made me relax a great deal. "You vanished from my life five years ago; you didn't even apply to college. You promised you would write, but I never received any letter and neither did Tucker. Not even a phone call to tell me you were alive. I thought you had died in the middle of some other country's war, raped or crippled."

"Danny…" When she spoke my name with such sad tenderness, I realized she hadn't said my name until that moment. No matter how much I fought to avoid remembrances of her, I had missed my best friend like hell. All the scars had been reopened now that I could see her alive and well right in front of my eyes, but it hurt to hear that she had just showed up because she was having ghost problems.

"I was worried sick and now you come back just because you need my help to catch a stupid ghost." I said. I should have stopped myself when I had the chance, but as soon as I spoke those words to her, she understood I was hurt and wasn't willing to forgive her that easily. I had never let a woman know my feelings since she went away and that had made me feel strong and unpredictable. But just to see her walking back into my life, looking more dashing than ever, just brought back all the weakness I thought I had gotten rid of.

"I'm sorry." She shook her head coldly, standing up. I panicked when I realized I had driven her away with my attitude, but I made sure my face remained calm and serene to her to make it difficult for her to read me. "I should have thought better before coming down here to ask such a thing. I won't bother you anymore, Mr. Fenton." She picked her purse and placed a twenty dollars bill on the table before I could stop her. "I believe it's enough for both our orders."

Without another word, without even a goodbye, I saw my childhood friend assume the pose of a woman and walk out of the coffee shop and out of my life for good.

Or so I had thought at that moment.

While I was panicking about never seeing those childish amethyst eyes again, the waitress came over my table and picked the bill. I stood up and left through the sliding glass door, leaving her to keep the change.

I realized that fall night was much colder than it was before I entered the place. I was left there, wandering in the dark streets alone, thinking if I should tell Tucker that Sam had just showed up and I had driven her away again – and for good – with my cowardice and stubborn act. But that had been for the best, I tried to convince myself.

I heard the ghosts I had captured that day laughing at me and my pathetic situation from inside the thermos, which I was carrying inside my bag with the office papers. Even they knew I was stupid and there was no point trying to hide the truth from them. There were Skulker, Spectra, Johnny 13 and Kitty inside the thermos and all of them knew my history with Samantha Manson.

Without realizing I took the path to the port. I enjoy going there at the night. I can't see anything so I just hear the sounds of crickets and sound of the waves crashing had always got a very relaxing effect on me. I tried to not think about what had just happened, I tried to make it as a nightmare and soon I would wake up on my bed ready for day of work.

But I would have no time to sleep and let alone have nightmares from that moment on. I heard someone running not very far away from me. The sound of someone running desperately on high heels made my heart skip a beat; I thought of the possibility of that person being Sam. That she was in trouble.

How could I let a woman walk by herself in a dark night like that? I knew how dangerous Amity Park had become over the years and I wasn't thinking about ghosts at the moment.

I ran towards the noise, following it until I could see the outline of a person. Indeed, it was a woman, and she was wearing a long coat and a big hat. It had to be Sam. I ran in her direction, but she blindly stepped closer to the edge of the wooden bridge.

I stopped for a moment to see where she had gone to and I was about to call her name when I saw her shielding herself with her arms and a dark shadow floating above her. The shadow hit her in the chest and I saw as she screamed and fell backwards on the ocean. In a millisecond there, I thought of something I had never even bothered thinking before: I had never seen Sam swimming. Did she even know how to swim?

In the next moment I had transformed in my ghost half and was already under the water looking for her. Whoever her attacker was, I could deal with him later. I wouldn't risk her getting drowned. I wouldn't let her die like that, not when she had just walked back into my life.

I found her several feet under, and she was sinking fast with her heavy lather coat bringing her down. I rushed towards her and quickly grabbed her around her waist. I'm not a fast swimmer and I never cursed myself for my lousy skills until that moment. I broke into the surface what seemed hours later. The icy cold water made my limbs go numb even in my ghost form.

The waves crashed dangerously around us and I didn't want to risk Sam getting in even more danger, so I just flew us out of the water and when I set my foot back on stable ground, I put her down to make sure she was okay.

She wasn't okay; she wasn't even breathing and had probably swallowed too much water. I cursed the old cliché of CPR an unconscious beautiful woman, but to my relief – or great disappointment – she coughed and took deep breaths before I could even touch her.

I let go of my breathing and I didn't even know I was holding it. She laid there unconscious, but breathing and I was relieved that she was alive.

I had never hated someone as much as I hated whoever pushed her in the water. I had a feeling it had been the ghost she had asked me to capture, but I wouldn't jump to conclusions. First things first, she started shivering and her lips were turning blue. I picked her up in her soaked clothes and carried her all the way to my messy apartment.

It was a good thing I had forgotten to turn the heater off because I needed her to warm up quick. I laid her soaked figure on the couch and removed her shoes. I had always been a gentleman and never undressed a woman without her consent, but I was going to make an exception for Sam that night.

I opened her lather coat and was mostly surprised to see a golden necklace sparking with a large diamond hanging in between her breasts. Its shine felt almost paranormal to me, but I shook the feeling off. I was tired, I could be imagining things and on the ghost hunting business taking a wrong path or clue could cost someone's life. I decided to just let her sleep that night and think about the diamond the next day.

When I got rid of her coat I was taken aback because I saw what she wore underneath it. It was just undergarments, no shirt, no skirt; just black lacy bra and panties with black pantyhose that stopped in the middle of her thighs. She was pale in contrast with her clothes and there were bruises on all over her body.

She wouldn't be happy when she woke up and found herself half naked, with her bruises exposed, but I didn't have any other option. So I walked to my bedroom and got a blanket and a white sheet for her. I covered her, not very carefully because I didn't want any physical contact at the moment.

Somehow I drifted off to sleep by her side, sitting on a chair, while I read my office papers. I had no idea what kind of trouble I was getting myself into.

Maybe I slept three or four hours, but I was jerked awake by Sam's sudden intake of breath. I had a really light sleep and when she sat up on the couch I opened my eyes to see a very frightened girl staring blindly at the empty wall in front of her, holding tightly on the jewel around her neck. I watched her carefully for a whole minute until she slowly remembered the previous events and calmed down.

She looked around and her eyes found mine. For a second there I caught a look very close to tears and a few drops ready to slide down her face, but as soon as she saw me those tears dried up and her vulnerable look once again was replaced by cold and indifference.

"Did you follow me?" She asked quietly.

"Not intentionally, but now I'm glad I did. I saw everything." I replied, standing up and walking to the kitchen. I decided to work on a hot chocolate to warm both of us and that would also be an excuse to leave her alone with her privacy to choose to put the wet coat back on or just lay around in her humid underwear.

I heard her moving around the living room and approaching the kitchen. I turned around just in time to see her wrapped around the white sheet I had covered her with, walking slowly towards me with an awkward look.

"Do you have any clothes I could borrow until mine are dry?" She asked quietly and I nodded. I left the kitchen to grab a pair of pajama pants and a loose shirt. Even now that I towered her almost a foot I knew she would think the clothes fit well. She had this small addiction on wearing my shirts when we were teens and I admit I thought it looked good on her.

She changed on the bathroom and when she came out I was ready to start the interrogation. She saw it coming when she opened the door and found me sitting on the kitchen table, holding two cups of chocolate and looking at her very seriously.

She sighed and sat down. It was obvious that she didn't want me to find out about whatever trouble she was having like that. No matter how hard she tried to hide it before, her expressionless face wouldn't fool me again.

"So…" I started quietly, watching her she sat down in front of me with a heavy look. She was very tired and I could see the dark circles under her eyes, but I couldn't let her just go to sleep and torture myself several more hours without a straight answer. I had to know everything. I carefully watched her as she gave me an opening to stare by lowering her face to the table surface. It was like she gave me permission to look as much as I wanted. And so I did.

From her beautiful humid hair, I let my eyes wander down her face, now completely free of makeup but still as beautiful as ever. I let myself study her diamond earrings that obviously matched her diamond necklace and down even more until I caught a sight on her finger. She was wearing a wedding ring.

I felt something strange, almost close to disappointment deep inside my stomach. Sam was married! I always thought she'd avoid commitment to her dying day. She didn't invite me to the wedding. I was going to use a few interrogation tricks on her using the memories of our friendship, but knowing she was married and she didn't tell me anything was like she had put an end on that friendship.

"I will help you." I mumbled tiredly. "You're clearly in danger." I continued and I saw her eyes light up with a slight hope. "First you must give me information about him. Do you know who he is?" I watched her quietly as she lowered her eyes once again and nodded, as if she was ashamed of her answer. "Who is he?" I pressed on, impatiently and in the next second I regretted asking that.

"My husband."

**Ha! New story!**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

I left Sam sleeping on my bed in the next morning and walked out for my day of work at the office. I was late and I knew Tucker would be already there. I had at least three top priority cases to be solved that day, but I knew it was going to be impossible to concentrate on anything else than the soft image of the woman who had once been my best friend, breathing softly on my bed, clutching the pillow.

"Danny, I was worried about you, man!" Tucker said as soon as I stepped inside the office. I lifted my eyes to see a pile of paper on his desk and three people standing around, waiting to get information about their cases. "We've been busy and you're two hours late!" Tucker kept talking and I just nodded and sat on my desk, organizing it so I could start calling the clients. "I mean, I wasn't even supposed to be here. I couldn't find a nanny for Cole today and I had to leave him with my mother. She's sick as a dog and she can't handle a small kid anymore."

When Tucker said that I had a brilliant idea. I didn't know how long Sam was staying, but she could keep an eye on Cole while we worked, unless she had business in town that didn't concern that ghost husband of hers.

The hours flew by very quickly and fifteen minutes before lunch break I had time to talk to Tucker about the events of the night before. I lay back on the chair and placed both of my feet on the desk, stretching my numb legs. Tucker had noticed by my odd silence the whole morning that I was keeping a secret to myself, so he folded his arms and stood by the window, watching the people rush through the sidewalk on their busy days.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" He asked out of curiosity, not really expecting a truthful answer. Tucker was like a brother to me and he knew me well enough. He knew that when I had something going on in my head that I didn't want him to know I'd just make something up to shut him up. He'd know I was lying and I'd know he knew I was lying, but that would satisfy both of us for weeks until I was ready to talk or until the subject was forgotten.

"You better sit down." I said, rubbing my hands over my face. I could tell Tucker was caught by surprise when I said that. He quietly pulled a chair and sat two feet away from me. "Yesterday when I was going home I saw Sam."

"Sam?" Tucker echoed, not controlling his surprised reaction. "Sam, you mean… _our_ Sam? Our best friend?"

"I don't know any other Sam." I answered, letting the sarcasm I learned from her come out spontaneously out of my lips. Tucker frowned at my answer, but he didn't retort, letting me go on with my story. "She's well. Nothing happened to her in Africa and she's living in Venice now."

"Venice? But, what is she doing back in Amity Park?" Tucker asked, his arms were still folded and I could tell they were a bit too hard. Tucker had been as hurt I had when Sam left.

"That's the weirdest part of it all." I sighed, standing up and walking around the room. "She's having ghost problems. She's not here to visit her old pals, but to hire us to get rid of the ghost who has been haunting her. Apparently she can't handle him by herself." I didn't know if I wanted to tell Tucker about the ghost attacking her last night, but I surely would tell him who the ghost was.

"She's here for formalities?" Tucker looked indignant at the thought. I supposed he'd start looking for her at that same moment and give her a piece of his own mind. I'd like to have given her a piece of mine the night before, but that would require opening the door to our past and with it the old scars.

"And there's more." I added and Tucker stopped pacing angrily around the room to look at me. "The ghost she needs us to get rid of is her husband."

There was the dramatic pause I was expecting from him. I wondered if mine had lasted more than fifty seconds just like his. He stared at me with his mouth hanging open and with a thousand thoughts running through his head. There were emotions crossing his features as well. I could distinguish shock, sadness and disgust.

Indeed, neither of us was happy for our former best friend.

"When did she get married to a ghost?" Tucker asked and I felt my mood light up a little. Obviously Sam had married the guy when he was alive and somehow he died and his ghost became obsessed with her. That was the only logical answer because there was no way a mentally healthy person would marry a ghost.

"She married him while he was alive." I said and Tucker just stared at me. I understood that he meant to ask when she had gotten married in the first place; he didn't care who she had married. "I didn't ask much about him. I was intending on going home earlier today so I could interrogate her. Would you like to come with me?"

"Yes." He answered immediately, but then he stopped and asked again. "Wait. Is she in your place right now?"

"Let's just say she passed out on me and I didn't have the heart to take her to a hotel." I answered firmly. Sam hadn't passed out on me, but after she told me she was married I couldn't bring myself to continue with the questions. I had stood up and showed her my room where she slept the whole night while I took the uncomfortable couch.

"I just hope you know what you're doing." Tucker sighed, placing both his hands on his pockets. I wished I could say something to make the situation easier for both of us, but I just couldn't. We both were going to walk straight into the claws of the woman who had abandoned us five years before. And we were stupid because we knew we would be hurt again, but we both gladly walked into her trap. "You know what?" Tucker suddenly was taken over by a passionate fury and looked very determinate to find out everything about Sam at that moment. "Let's just close the office today. We HAVE to talk to her and NOW."

"I am as anxious as you are to talk to her, Tuck." I tried to out some reason into his thick head. Tucker nowadays was much like I was in my teen day. He'd let his heart take over his sense and he'd get himself into stupid situations because of that. "But you must realize that we have a very important case – there's someone who's paying a great amount of money for it to be solved this week, we can't just abandon it and go see a girl."

"You're right." A female voice said at the door and we both turned around to see Sam, in the same clothes from the day before, fixing her hat in the reflection of the glass window. I hated it instantly when she did that. To me it looked like she wasn't caring about our feelings and was there just a client. It felt like she was treating us like employees who didn't even deserve be looked in the eye as she spoke. "You shouldn't close the office to go see a girl. The girl has come to you."

"Sam…" I heard Tucker whispering and I turned to see him. I was shocked and so was Sam when he let her name come out of his lips with such gentleness that I could swear that tone only belonged to a lover. Sam was in shock, too, but she held her façade until he took three rushed steps across the room and swept her over in a tight embrace.

Her face was turned in my direction, but she was too stunned from Tucker sudden hug that she didn't even notice me staring at them with my heart burning in jealously. I had no idea what that had come from, but I didn't like it.

And then I noticed she had a bruise on her neck, a mark that only someone who had been with her intimately would place. Was her husband following her or had she found someone else during this morning when I left her alone? I also noticed she wore the same clothes from the night before, which made me wonder if she hadn't brought a bag with something to change. It was a hot day and it didn't seem very suitable for her to be wearing pantyhose.

"I thought you had died!" Tucker suddenly said, not letting go from her and I could have chuckled at her uncomfortable position if I wasn't so busy analyzing the situation. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you, too." She finally said and he seemed to be satisfied with the answer and set her back on her feet. She straightened her clothes and she gave him a small smile that looked very sincere, actually, it had been the first sincere emotion I had seen on her face since the night before. But that smile didn't last more than ten seconds. She looked at me with her uptight expression and slowly walked to me, clutching tight to her necklace, hiding the diamond in her hands. "Thank you for letting me spend the night in your place. That was very kind of you."

"I told Tucker about your ghost husband." I said to attack her, to take her aback and maybe get something else out of her that seemed genuine, but she didn't even flinch at my words and I realized she didn't care whoever knew about it. She didn't want to hide her problems with her husband, like I thought she would.

"Good. It saves me the trouble to explain it all over again." She said, taking a chair and sitting down right in the other side of my desk, crossing her legs slowly, in a tempting manner. If I didn't know her, I'd believe she was trying to seduce me. Later I'd realize she was just trying to take my attention from her necklace to somewhere else.

Tucker moved to sit down on my chair while I sat on my desk. We were both very interested in the story, but we were even more interested when she opened her purse and started writing down a pay check.

"Fifty thousand dollars should pay for your services, right?" She didn't look over from the check she was writing and I was glad she didn't because I was caught by surprise. That amount was enough for six months of work; nobody had ever paid that much for a case. She must really have been desperate, or she simply liked to throw her money away. I didn't say anything and neither did Tucker. We just exchanged a glance and accepted the check.

"Do you want to sign the contract as well?" I asked her, but she shook her head. "All right. Now we need to know everything you can tell us that will help. When does he show up? How does he show up? Do you do anything that can lure him out or make him angry?"

"I'll tell you everything." She leaned against the chair and picked a cigarette and a lighter from her purse. I was surprised that she took the habit of smoking when in high school she was against everything that would result in smoke and whatever was dangerous for the environment. Even that leather she was wearing. The Sam I knew would never wear something like that. "I met him in Africa. He told me he was working for the UN as well, as a doctor, but only after we were married that I found out it was just an excuse to keep him in Africa so he could find diamonds and gold and take them off the country to sell them in the black market."

"Sounds like you got yourself a bad guy from the start." I chuckled, trying to tick something off that indifferent face, but she just shrugged like it didn't really matter to her and went on with the story.

"We got married in Africa and when my duty on UN was over he convinced me to move with him to his castle in Venice. I was very much in love. One year later he died in an accident and somehow his ghost comes after me. I was glad at first because I wouldn't miss him, but eventually he turned much possessive and he'd hurt me if I left the castle. He was jealous even of the butler and the maids and he scared all of them away. He keeps following me around now." She took a deep drag to finish the cigarette and put it out. "I can't live like this."

"All right…" I managed to say after hearing that quick story. I should have known the tale was too quick to be complete, she didn't want to give details of her relationship with him and I really didn't want to hear it, unless it was very important, so I just pretended I knew everything from that two minutes story. "He's not here right now. Why?"

"He doesn't seem to show up in daylight." She said and I knew instantly that her husband's ghost was a powerful one. Night ghosts are stronger than daylight ones, but those who can walk in night and day are the most feared ones. I was glad he didn't seem like that type of ghost or else I'd have bigger problems. "And there's more." She suddenly said. I was already taking notes of what she had said, but I set down the pen to pay attention on whatever was to come. "There are more ghosts in my house. I want them gone, too. I'll deal with travel and housing expenses so you won't have to worry about going there with me."

I was stunned for lack o better words. Not only Tucker and I were going to get fifty thousand dollars to solve a simple case, but we'd be traveling to Venice for free. I could study all those ghost cases that people talked about for hundreds of years.

"I'm sorry Sam I can't go." Tucker suddenly said, standing up and walking around the room nervously. "I'd love to go and help you, but I have my son. I can't just leave him with my mother; she's sick." I suddenly felt panic, as if I was being asphyxiated with a pillow. I realized I couldn't go to Venice alone with Sam. I couldn't put myself in a foreign territory, inside her house with only her and the remembrances of our past to haunt us.

"You can take your son with us if you want." Sam said. I almost recognized the commanding tone in her voice. She wasn't just offering to take Cole as well, she was demanding both Tucker and I to go with her and there would be no other choice. It was at that point that I realized she didn't want to stay alone with me.

Tucker eventually agreed to take Cole with us. When lunch time was over, Sam stood up from my office chair and walked out of the door. Tucker told her she could go and meet Cole if she wanted and I found it really odd that her only response to that was a small nod. "Be ready to leave tonight."

"How long do you think it will take to capture the ghost?" Tucker asked me, whipping his forehead in a handkerchief. "If the office stays closed for more than three weeks…"

"She's paying a lot for our services. I wouldn't think about the office now." I stood up and grabbed my wallet, putting it in my pocket. I put on my jacket and walked to the door. "I'm going to get a coffee at Starbucks, do you want anything?"

"A strong coffee for me, please." Tucker mumbled. He sat on his desk and started putting his papers in order. Since we didn't know when we were coming back, he took the job of calling our clients and making an excuse for our trip.

When I returned with his coffee fifteen minutes later I had much more information about Sam. I had seen her entering a store across the street while I was buying the coffees. She walked inside and ten minutes later she came out wearing business clothes. The tight baby blue skirt went down to her knees and the matching jacket she wore was open at the front so I could see a white shirt with a black butterfly tie on top. She was wearing a smaller hat and black gloves with black high heels.

I wondered what had happened to my Goth best friend. She looked so uptight and so ladylike she reminded me of one of those princesses who had to dress formally all the times to cause an impression on the public, to make themselves look respectable. I smiled when I realized I was comparing her to princesses. In my mind not even Grace Kelly had been a fairer princess than Sam.

She was carrying a small bag on her hands in which I thought she had put her other clothes in. That made me wonder why she hadn't brought a bag since she was traveling to another continent. It wasn't possible that she had lost it at the airport was it?

I watched her until she elegantly climbed into a taxi and went away. I wanted to go ghost and follow her, but at that exactly moment the lady behind the counter on Starbucks gave me the cups of coffee and I lost sight of her cab.

Tucker had just called the last client when I gave him his cup and I could see he was very disturbed by the recent events. The clients weren't happy that their cases were put on hold for several weeks and some of them even threatened to look for another ghost hunting office.

Something changed in me when I saw her walking out of the store wearing that Chanel attire because suddenly I didn't care if we lost all our other clients, I didn't even remember her paycheck that was forgotten on my desk's drawer. My goal from that moment on was to find out who she had become.

"We'll have to install the Ghost Portal in her house." Tucker said bringing me out of my daydream. "We need to stay close to Walker just in case we need reinforcements. She said there were 'ghosts' in her house and we don't know how many there are. We may not have enough Fenton Thermos for all of them."

"I can install one in three days." I said and that was true. My abilities at building ghost hunting devices and installing portals were my best skills. "Maybe we should just go home and pack. She said we'd leave tonight."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Tucker said quietly. He wasn't expecting me to reply so I just put a hand on his shoulder and we both exited our beloved office not knowing when we'd be able to return.

We walked for about three blocks until we reached his mother's house. I wanted to see Cole and make sure Tucker's mom was feeling better. Tucker opened the door with his spare key and we walked inside to find cookies and milk in the kitchen table. Laughter was coming from the living room and we followed it to find Mrs. Foley sitting comfortably in a chair covered in a blanket while Sam played with Cole on the floor.

I had never seen that kid so happy and Sam's smile and laugher sounded like music to my ears. Something heavy I was carrying in my heart since I saw her again was lifted and I took a deep breath, enjoying my moments of freedom before she encaged me with her dark expression once more.

Cole giggled when she caught him and lifted him up in a hug, spinning from around. Mrs. Foley laughed at their goofiness as well and I watched Tucker's reaction from the corner of my eyes. He was smiling happily at the scene and I could tell his heart was swollen in happiness.

But the laugher died down when Sam turned around and saw both of us standing on the threshold. She put Cole on the ground and straightened her clothes. Cole hugged her legs and she put a hand on his head, absently caressing his hair.

"Are you ready to go?" She suddenly asked and we both shook our heads immediately. "Well then you better hurry, the plane leaves in four hours." Neither Tucker nor I dared to complain.

Sam had already explained to Mrs. Foley what we were up to and I called my own mother to have it confirmed that Sam had already paid her a visit as well. When Sam's parents passed away my mother and Tucker's mother were the ones who helped her through the difficult times more than we did. Maybe it was girls' stuff that Tucker and I would never understand, but the three of them became closer, like foster mothers. Eventually I realized our mothers had being placed in Sam's heart to fill the hole her parent's deaths had opened. Sam would go for their shoulders to cry on and I often found her crying on my mother's arms when I came home late from school.

Often I caught myself wondering why she would go for my mother and not me, who had been her friend for years and had proved my loyalty many times. I never got an answer for that question.

"We'll meet at ten o'clock at the 18th gate." She said, giving us both our tickets she had bought on her name. She walked right past us, gave a Mrs. Foley a hug and walked out of the door. I saw her diamond necklace start shining brightly and she quickly grabbed it, hiding it under her shirt. What was wrong with that necklace anyway?

I wanted to reach for her out of their sights, I wanted to ask her about the diamond and the meaning of her cold heart towards Tucker and me, but I couldn't because at that moment Mrs. Foley decided to speak up and what she said only added one more odd event to the list of odd events that came with Sam.

"That poor child." Mrs. Foley said, standing up from her chair to limp with her cane in her right hand towards the kitchen to check on the cookies. "You wouldn't believe how many tragedies have been following her over the years. When she saw Cole her first reaction was to hug him and cry her eyes out." Mrs. Foley put the cookies in a plate and put them on the table. Cole quickly jumped from Tucker's arms to fill his little mouth with three cookies at once almost choking trying to swallow them. "She must have seen some horrible things in Africa to start crying like that."

I had no doubt Sam had seen horrible things, but I needed to understand better what exactly had happened to her, but it seemed Mrs. Foley had ran out of information. If I wanted to know what was wrong with Sam I'd have to walk into her house in Venice and put myself on her mercy. I'd have to play submissive and obedient so she could trust me again like old days.

**AN- Thanks for the reviews and the PM Messages everyone! I've read every single one of them and I was so happy! I'll post the next chapter in two weeks maybe, I'm not sure. It depends on my filming schedule. Anyway, did you know it's my birthday? I think I deserve some reviews in this special date... LOL.**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three**_

Venice… the city of the romance and ghost apparitions. I only knew a few places in it from what I've seen in some movies. I never imagined it would be like that. But truth be told, whenever I see golden buildings rising from the waters I imagine how many people died in there, how many ghosts can't find peace and still haunts those places for centuries.

Once Venice had been the main port from where trade from the orient came into Europe, the Queen of the Adriatic Sea. There had been merchants, kings, doges, slaves, thieves, pirates and common people sharing the same thing: the gold from the Byzantine Empire. It was that gold that built Venice and supported it's extravagances for hundreds of years, building up the churches that looked like a work of the orient, inspired by Islamic' stunning architecture. That is, until Venice completely became independent and repulsed everything from the same Empire that had once had supported it. It was like a prosperous son repelling the father.

Venice pretty much suited Sam's personality. She had turned her back on those who had helped her grow up, too. She had turned her back on us and left.

Of course, I learned all that about Venice from the book I read on the plane. I tried to prepare myself for the dream city and not act like an idiot ignorant in front of Sam, but my efforts weren't paid off. I controlled my reactions when we crossed The Grand Canal, when I saw San Marco's Church when our boat passed by it and I didn't mutter a sound at the Doge's Palace, but I completely lost my pose when the boat turned in a small island quite near San Marco's Square and I saw the Castle, or better, the Palace Sam had been living in.

The entrance of the Palace was a dock, naturally, since there isn't much land in Venice's island. The streets are so thin that a bicycle can barely cross by so there are no cars going around, unless they are cabs leaving the city. So it was obvious that the entrance to the palace was a dock, with three gondolas that Sam owned, one yacht and two normal boats, small enough to make quick trip around the canal.

I barely noticed Tucker and Cole's reaction to all that greatness around us. I paid attention to the man who was sailing our boat. He was the only one in there to sail all the watercraft and as soon as he helped us get our luggage off the boat, he picked a small cheap boat and went away, promising Sam he would be close by and if she needed to go anywhere she would just give him a call.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to carry your own luggage to the guest rooms. Alexander's ghost scared all my employees away." It was the first time I heard her husband's name and I frowned when I heard it. I hated that name because it reminded me of Rome's Emperor and I didn't like to have an enemy with such a powerful name. Maybe I had never paid attention to my enemies' names before, but somehow I paid attention that time.

"Is there a basement where we can install our equipment?" I naively asked. I only realized I had made a fool out of myself when she giggled, covering her mouth in the process. I felt my face heat up.

"A basement? Oh please, this palace was built on water, it's impossible to have a basement. Okay, maybe there was one before the water completely submerged it thousands of years ago, but I suppose it won't fit your purpose the way it is now." She said, turning around to see Tucker and me sweating ourselves to death while carrying the heavy equipment begs. Even poor Cole was carrying more weight than he should. And she? Well, she was just carrying her shop bag, walking elegantly across the endless entrance hall with her heel echoing through the corridors of the palace. I must admit I got to like the sound of those heels.

"Maybe an attic, then?" Tucker asked breathlessly. The poor guy was about to pass out. It was the first time since we landed that he said something. He had been too overwhelmed by our surroundings to actually pay attention to our work.

"No. Maybe you'd like an extra room for that, but I think you'll find one of the towers more suiting." When she said that I cursed myself for not looking up when we approached the place with the boat. She had towers? In plural? I couldn't believe my eyes, my ears or anything else I could capture with my five senses. That was… too much.

We followed her through the stone corridors and up the stairs. I could swear we walked for about seven minutes before we reached the room's area. Along the way she quietly explained it was easy to get lost in the palace, so we should pay attention to were we were going. The west wing would lead to the rooms and resting areas while the east would take to library, kitchen and other working areas. The north wing was the entrance and the south wing would lead to the towers and dungeons.

"Dungeons? Cool!" Cole said, making Sam smile and pick him by his hand. "Can I go see it?"

"Of course, I'll go with you as soon as you're settled." Sam said, finally letting some of her warmth be revealed in front of us.

"Can I sleep in the same room as you, auntie?" Cole said and I was ready to see Sam's smile turn into a grimace for the 'auntie' part, but instead she just smiled even more and agreed to have him in the same room as her. Tucker seemed much more relaxed after that and I certainly wouldn't worry about Cole safety in that palace anymore. Sam would obviously take care of him while we were busy.

The room I was going to sleep in was bigger than my whole apartment. The heavy curtains blocked even the brightest day and the king size bed had the most comforting mattress I had ever laid on. The silk sheets and the Japanese futons could warm an army. My room was right across Tucker's and while I unpacked I saw him through the open door. He was sniffing all the perfumes and colognes that were placed on the dresser inside his room.

I shivered and closed the window, but it was already night so there would be no sunlight to warm that place up a little. Naturally a palace built in stone and marble and gold would be very cold and the fact that it was in the middle of the fall only made me worry if I had brought enough clothes to stand it. The cold and the freezing breezes that seemed to go around the corridors also made me wonder if they were natural or if it was caused by an invisible ghost.

I heard an angry groaning echoing through the cold breeze. I put on a jacket and decided to prepare the ghost portal as soon as I could. That situation seemed typically from a horror movie, but of course a ghost couldn't hurt me. I feared for Tucker, Cole and Sam. They didn't have ghost powers and couldn't fight him in the regular way. The best I could do was to load the weapons I had brought and give them enough ammunition to protect themselves.

"Is everything all right? Is the room of your liking?" Sam suddenly showed up at the door. I saw she had changed to more comfortable clothes, but still very elegant ones. She was wearing pants of some material that wasn't jeans, but seemed much warmer than any other fabric I had ever seen and she was also wearing a white turtle-neck sweater. And the high heels. Always the high heels.

"Yes, Sam…" I finally called her by her nickname. I sighed when I realized I was slowly losing my strong façade in front of her. "I like the room, I like the palace. I like everything in here and I'm very comfortable."

"I'm sorry; I didn't want to bother you." She said quietly, turning around. Just when she was about to leave the room I realized I had once again pushed her away when she was only trying to be a good hostess. I rushed to her side and held her by her elbow, turning her to face me. She quickly pushed my hands off her and jumped at least two feet away from me. She looked scared and surprised by my touch and I saw her looking around the room as if we were being spied. When she found nothing there she turned to look at me in the eyes once more, waiting for me to speak.

"I'm sorry, Sam. Really. I just don't know how to act around you anymore." I finally confessed and before I could stop myself I scratched the back of my head. It's just a nervous thing I do when I less expect. I can't control it.

"It's all right. It's my fault you don't know how to act." I saw her looking around nervously and taking one step back. "I just wanted to tell you that dinner will be served in thirty minutes. I cooked it myself so I'm not sure it will taste very good."

"I'm sure it will be wonderful." I smiled and she smiled back at me, shyly, looking down to the floor an instant later. My heart was beating faster at her reaction. It was beating for finally recognizing my best friend under that well behaved heiress. I wanted to touch her again, but I was afraid she'd shrug me off again.

"I'm going downstairs then. Finish unpacking. You can take the equipment to the south tower if you want." And she turned around and this time she really left. I watched her as she disappeared through the dark corridors with only her shadows following her.

It was the first time I realized how lonely she had been. She had that palace to herself; all that space, those empty guest rooms and the ballroom that had never been used. She had at least fifty telephones around the palace and neither of them had ever ringed. In the library, she had already read thousands of books, but she had nobody to tell their stories.

I had part of my answer of what had happened to my Sam. She had become a lonely princess in a cold castle, with no servants in her court and no friend to escort her through a walk in the gardens.

Sam's cooking skills were wonderful I never liked vegetarian lasagna before I tried hers and even Tucker, always the meat-addicted, said that had been the best lasagna he had ever eaten. I really thought that mission was going to bring the three of us closer again so we could catch up with the friendship. I was soothed by my own thoughts and hopes for the next days.

That same night Sam allowed Cole to sleep in her bed, but as soon as the clock indicated five minutes to midnight she picked him up and carried him to his own room, tucking him in and placing a teddy bear by his side. I watched her through the keyhole. She returned to her room and locked the door and as soon as she did I looked at my wrist watch. It was exactly midnight.

Sam's room's door started shaking, as if being forced. Then it stopped and I heard voices inside the room. I also heard the mattress moving and flashes of light from under the door. It had obviously been ghost activity, but I didn't want to go inside and catch him just now. I had to see what kind of ghost he was and what he was capable of. The years of ghost hunting taught me to not fully trust my instincts.

But I wanted badly to go inside her room and put an end to that, but she could end up hurt and it made me hold myself back. I thought about the way she had put Cole in his room and as if in grief she returned to hers, locking the door. I realized she expected the ghost to show up to her like that and at that exact time. So it all had been a routine. She was used to have that ghost inside her room every night. She didn't run or scream like the night before when she was attacked and fell into the water. It was like she had just accepted having that ghost there.

I quickly wrote down everything I had seen. I sighed and put the notebook on the night table beside my bed and got under the blankets. I was very tired from the plane ride and then from unpacking and loading the weapons. If only I had the ghost portal ready I could have faced that ghost without fear, but I couldn't risk it. I still hadn't done any research about his death. Usually the way someone dies influences his ghost obsessions and it also may become his weakness. More than once I captured a ghost by trapping him the same way he had died. The memories would weaken him down, making him vulnerable enough so I could suck him inside the Fenton Thermos.

Over the years and after much beating by 'playing the hero' I realized that firing a ghost ray as soon as I see a ghost isn't the best way to get rid of it.

When I woke up the next morning I saw Sam helping Cole to have his breakfast. He seemed to enjoy the colorful Italian cereal, but was making a mess at the table, splashing milk everywhere. Sam was teaching him to hold the spoon properly in a polite manner. I also noticed she was dressed to go out. She was wearing a white lacy dress; the skirt would end just below her knees. She was also wearing white lacy gloves. That was a huge contrast to the Goth look she used to have.

"Are you going out?" I asked politely while sitting at the table, serving myself cheese and bread and a cup of coffee. Sam smiled at me and nodded. When she looked back to Cole her hair flipped to the side, giving me a clear view of her neck. I saw a bite mark there, obviously made in the night before. It didn't look like a result of aggression, but a mark of a lover. I wondered if she had someone else staying in that house beside us. Was it possible that after the recent death of her husband she already had a new lover? "Can I go with you? I need to buy some filters for the portal. I expect to get it working tonight."

"Of course you can go. Just hurry up because the gondola will be here shortly." Then she once again turned her attention to Cole who grinned and showed his tongue to me, happy that he was getting attention and I wasn't. "Cole will go with us; do you think Tucker would like to go, too?"

"No. He's up since seven working on the weapons. He didn't even want to come down to have breakfast." I answered and Sam raised her eyebrows realizing how unlike Tucker it was to reject food.

When Cole was done Sam stood up and grabbed a white lacy umbrella. She reached her hand for him and he rushed to her side clumsily like every three year old child. The same man that sailed us to the palace the day before was standing in the gondola, waiting for us to sit down.

"Good morning, Mrs. Schwarz." So that was her last name now… He took Sam's hand and helped her sit down, then he helped Cole who sat on Sam's lap, but I refused his hand and sat down in the seat next to her.

We all got off at San Marco's Square. The gondola man just waited for us among the others at the marine. Sam opened her umbrella and rested the cane on her shoulder. I kept myself at least ten feet away from her so I could watch everything from distance. I can't describe how beautiful she looked just walking around the square like that. Even the tourists stopped looking at the cathedral to glace at her as she passed by them.

I smiled to myself. She'd bring peace to whoever watched her. The pigeons around the square flew around her and one landed on her hand to eat a piece of bread she had saved from breakfast just to feed the birds. Cole's eyes shone when he saw that many birds around him and he started chasing them around, giggling and screaming in happiness. I caught one or two tourists taking pictures of her.

"Excuse me, miss." A young man with a heavy French accent approached her, taking her hand before she could pull away from him.

"Yes?" For a second she looked frightened. She quickly looked around and then back to the guy who still was holding her hand. He placed a kiss on her glove and Sam paled. I think she actually started shaking for a brief moment.

"Could you give me the pleasure of escorting you and your little friend today?" The guy dared ask. I stepped forward to make him see that I was her escort that day. He looked at me, very surprised. He let go of her hand very embarrassed. "Oh excuse me; I didn't know you already had company. I apologize for the inconvenience, Miss." He muttered an apology to me and walked away.

I looked to Sam and saw her shivering. She nervously looked around for Cole.

"C-come here Cole. Do you want to see the golden walls inside the church?" She called and Cole immediately ran to her side, hugging her legs and nodding frantically. "Okay, so you'll have to be a good boy and not let go of my hand." Once more, Cole nodded and the three of us walked inside San Marco's cathedral, pretending that she wasn't nervous about that guy.

I watched her explaining to Cole the origin of and style of the architecture and the mosaics. She explained it all in a very enthusiastic manner even if it was completely pointless because he was just a child and didn't seem to get a single thing of what she was saying.

I heard voices around us and felt people staring at us. There were three old women that didn't look at Sam as if she was a great person as the tourists outside seemed to think, but they were making disgusted faces at her, speaking vile things as they shamelessly stared at her even after they noticed I had spotted them. I heard a few lines like 'Mrs. Schwarz was possessed then…', 'The cook saw everything,' 'I think she did it,' and 'they must arrest her at once.' I didn't understand what the main subject of their gossip was, but I stayed alert for whatever else they might mention.

Sam had noticed the gossip going on, too. She suddenly turned around and looked at the three old women with such hate in her eyes that I took a step back in fear. She looked scary, ready to jump on them and open their throats with her teeth. I also noticed that she was once more wearing the diamond necklace and that the stone started shining again and instinctively she reached up her gloved hand to cover it before someone saw it.

"Do you want to see the Prison's torture chambers, Cole?" She asked the little boy, not taking her icy cold eyes from the old ladies, who shivered and repeatedly made the Sign of the Cross, rushing away as if Sam was the devil himself.

Something was going on with Sam and with the whole Venice. I had no time to waste. I had to know what was going on and the only way I could think of finding was to look for Mr. Schwarz's history.

I was able to excuse myself when Sam walked inside the Doge's Palace with Cole and I wandered alone in those small streets around the square. I didn't know where I was going at first so I asked in a restaurant where the city's library was. Lucky for me it was very near where I was. I was torn between taking a tour around Venice with Sam and my obligation, but in the end I took the chance to research about Alexander Schwarz.

The librarian spied on me while I searched; after all I was the only tourist who had ever visited Venice to check out the library. I found the database of all the newspaper in Italy, but I focused on the ones from Venice. It took me more than an hour searching through the titles of the headlines until I finally found his family name in one of them. Unfortunately, before I could read the article the librarian decided to nose in once more.

"Oh, so you're looking for Mr. Schwarz murder. Are you from Interpol?" The old woman asked with a heavy accent. It was hard for me to understand what exactly she was saying at first, but I got the word 'murder' very well.

"Schwarz was murdered, you say?" I asked her and she looked very satisfied that she had gotten my attention. She pulled out a chair and sat down by my side.

"Oh yes, I thought you policemen had all that information already." She said and I didn't bother to explain to her that I wasn't a policeman at all. I didn't interrupt her so she continued, talking nonstop like a parrot. "You see the news says it was an accident, nobody could confirm that he was actually pushed down the stairs. The news had an article about the possibility that he had been murdered by his wife. I believe they had been married for about a year before he died. It makes sense to me if you ask me. A girl he meets out of nowhere and suddenly gets married. It was obvious she was just interested in his money. Their age difference was about ten years so it's obvious that he only wanted a pretty face on his bed while she just wanted his money. I mean… I have no idea about his bank account, but take a look at the palazzo they lived!"

She was a really nosy woman. She seemed to know everything about Sam and Alexander's life, as if she had read everything on celebrity magazines. She knew where Sam shopped, she knew where Sam went for her lonely afternoon teas and she also knew Sam had been often spotted around the city, discreetly crying.

"Well, thank you for the information, ma'am." I said and I turned back to my work, now looking for the articles that explained the possibility of murder. The woman kept staring, but she didn't bother me anymore. I found everything I needed. The journalists and with the help of the investigators thought it was probable that Sam, Mrs. Schwarz, had pushed her husband down the stairs. They found a bruise on his back that looked like hand marks and her fingerprints were all over his body. She was never taken to jail because the marks and fingerprints weren't enough proof against her.

"I really think she did it. That angel face of hers hides her true nature. I'm sure she has a dark soul." The librarian started speaking again. "Beside the money she had a reason to do it as well." I looked at her she hit her palm flat on the computer table. "He wasn't a good man either, both were vicious and dominants. One wanted to control the other and lately he was the one putting her in her place. At the beginning she's go around the town and spend time with kids she didn't even know, leaving her husband in that castle. Then he made her start wearing more decent clothes; before she'd wear mostly black and purple, but he changed her habits and then he'd just allow her to leave home holding hands with him. She deserved to be put in her place if you ask me. That was a good reason for her to start hating him, the investigators said. He imprisoned her and that just made her snap, after all a divorce wasn't an option since she would have to leave without a single nickel on her pocket. Murder was her way out."

Indeed, that seemed like a solution and I knew Sam was capable of being violent when she was out in a situation she didn't want to be in. But murder? That's right, it explained a lot of things, the reason why she wasn't looking at me and Tucker in the eyes in the first place. Guilty do that to people. Also it would explain why she was acting so cold towards everyone. And Alexander's ghost too. If he really died in that palace and couldn't pass on it was because he had unsettled business there. He had to settle things with Sam so she became his obsession, the reason why he was still trapped among the living.

That had been a conclusion I didn't want to reach. It was impossible for me to see my Sam, the child I grew up with, suddenly committing a crime for money. It was true that she was broke after her parent's death; it was true she was used to have an extravagant life and destiny had taken it all from her. There was no way to deny it. I couldn't deny it after seeing her murdering look to those old ladies inside the church. And the fingerprints! Sam had killed her own husband.

I expressed my gratitude to the librarian and left. On my way to San Marco's Square, where Sam would probably be waiting for me, I found the streets completely deserted. People had gone inside their houses and the stores were closed. The sky that was so blue a few hours ago now was dark and threatened to punish the city with a heavy storm at any minute.

I hurried up and found my way back to the square. I found a crowd gathered there, all standing around a circle. People were shouting and kids were crying. Something terrible must have happened so I ran to the crowd to see with my own eyes.

The same French guy that had kissed Sam's hand was lying dead on the floor surrounded by pigeons. I stepped even closer to analyze the body better. He was strangled.

"Kid, do you know this man?" A policeman asked me and I shook my head. I quickly stood up and tried to get away from the crowd and look for Sam. "This is the sixth this month. I don't understand." I heard someone saying, but I was too worried about her and Cole to even pay attention.

I found her waiting for me at the boat, holding Cole in her arms while he cried. Both looked very frightened.

"Let's go home now please, Danny." She said in verge of tears and doubt struck me once more.

Had she really killed her husband?

**Hi everyone. I'm sorry for the delay, but this time I have a reason to. My three months old puppy died in a terrible accident. My dad stepped on her head and broke her skull. Yeah, I know, horrible. I think I was in shock because I'm slowly forgetting the events of that day. I remember getting her in my arms and running barefoot and to the vet in the first hours of the morning wearing just my nightshirt that was soaked with her blood. I also remember CPR-ing the poor thing on the way, but I think she was already dead, I just wished too hard to get her back that I thought she could make it if I arrived fast to the vet. Anyway, I had a creative block for three weeks after that, I couldn't read, write, draw or take pictures because I'd see her everywhere. I'm better now. The shock and mourning are almost over and I can write again. **

**Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and for those who asked my birthday was on June 6th. Once again, I'm sorry about the delay I should treat you readers better than I do. I'm really, really sorry.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Edited**

_**Chapter Four**_

She could have been cursed by some genie like Desiree. Africa was a place with lots of genies and wizards. She could be the victim of her husband's family conspiracy to get the inheritance from her. She could have been the victim of a series of unfortunate events. Coincidence.

And she could really have killed Mr. Schwarz.

Those were all the possibilities I could think of to explain what was going on with Sam, but I admit I was inclined to believe she was guilty once she had a very unfriendly visit from police officers that same afternoon while Tucker and I were finishing the Ghost Portal.

I had just finished tying the last filter to the Portal when I heard several steps rushing inside the castle. I thought it was a massive ghost invasion, so I concentrated on forming the two circles around my waist that transformed me in my ghost alter ego. I flew down the cold stone stairs and found the Venetian police abruptly entering the place with a warrant.

"You can search how much you like, sergeant." Sam said in a cold voice that matched her erect body and dark features. "You won't find anything you haven't seen before. And this time you better not break anything."

"Is that a threat, Mrs.?" The sergeant said and Sam, much to my admiration and surprise, took a calmly long drag of her cigarette and blew it off on his face. She should know better than to treat a policeman like that.

"Take it as you like." She replied. Instantly, the man shoved her on an empty couch very rudely. She sat up straight like a spoiled rich girl almost daring him to touch her again, but she knew better than to voice any more threats. Those investigators knew for sure she was a cold blood murderer and they wouldn't tell a soul if the sergeant suddenly decided to slap her. They were the only witnesses in the room (as far as they knew) and they wouldn't report a case of aggression against their own superior.

I floated invisible, watching every step of the investigation. They searched for fingerprints, they took pictures of the stairs I supposed Alexander had fallen from. They searched in the kitchen for possible poisoning products and in Sam's bathroom's cabinet for illegal medicine. The medicine in there may not have been illegal, but I was surprised to find many bottles of morphine and syringes. There also were several other painkillers and sleeping pills. Those were enough to kill a human being (maybe even an elephant).

I checked on Tucker and Cole. Both were busy in a tower and didn't even listen to the commotion downstairs. Without going visible, I floated back to Sam to check on her before that oversized sergeant did anything to her. I found her sitting on the same sofa, smoking her third cigarette. She had her legs crossed revealing a black garter underneath her small skirt.

"Tell me again how he fell down the stairs." The sergeant asked with a smirk.

"I have no idea. I was asleep. I woke up with the noise and found him dead already." Sam replied. She didn't meet his eyes, but I could see that she was slightly sad at saying this. She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath.

"All right, lady. I've had enough of your games." He spat at her and abruptly he picked her up by her shoulders to shout at her face, trying to intimidate her. On his very ungentle act, he ripped part of her beautiful Versace dress and I could see that same murdering look she had given the old ladies the day before back in her eyes.

I felt a cold shiver pass through my body as I saw that scene. The girl I grew up with suddenly vanished from my sight to be replaced with a cold bloodied woman who faced that tall man with such strength that in will he looked very smaller than her. He looked intimidated by her stare. With just her cold gaze she was able to put him back on his place.

I was going to interrupt them, but Cole was faster than me. He showed up in the stairs, running towards Sam and wrapping his little arms around her waist. The sergeant stepped back, completely changing his attitude.

"Basta." Sam said, wrapping her arms protectively around the scared kid. "Se non hai trovato niente vai via. Non posso permettere questo comportamento davanti un bambino." I wish I knew Italian to understand why suddenly she started speaking it. Obviously even the sergeant was caught by surprise. Everybody was being very careful to speak clear English with her and suddenly she humiliated them by showing how useless their efforts had been.

The sergeant called his team back and nobody had found anything incriminating. It looked oddly like a routine. They gathered their equipment and climbed in the police boat.

"Cole, dear. Why don't you go to the kitchen and get some chocolate I put there for you?" Sam suddenly said and Cole more than happily jumped from her arms and run to the kitchen. The sweet smile on Sam's face was replaced by a cold smirk and she approached the sergeant. I was stunned as much as he was. She neatly wrapped her arms around him and said in a deadly quiet voice "You won't believe I'm innocent, will you?"

"You are a vicious snake who killed a good man. You're everything but innocent, lady." He said, but he didn't move away from her. Like every man, he was very weak to be in contact with such beautiful lady even if he believed she was deadly. That's our weakness I guess. We will gladly walk to a lady's arms even knowing she's most likely holding a knife behind her back.

"Too bad for you." Sam said and she stepped away from him. Her necklace started glowing as he climbed on the boat and went away. I watched as she held the necklace, breathing heavily, looking very anxious.

As the sun set in the horizon the boat went further away. I watched it go peacefully until someone was thrown in the water. The commotion was absurd. Several men jumped in the water trying to save the first one. But I knew their efforts were hopeless. The sergeant was already dead by the time they were able to bring him back to the surface.

I stared at Sam who had horrified tears running down her face, but she didn't look away. I was oddly suspicious that she knew that man would drown at that moment, but I hadn't seen her move a muscle to cause it. She was keeping something very important from me and at that night I would find out what it was. With the portal ready I could face her husband's ghost.

"All right Sam." I said, becoming visible right by her side. She didn't seem surprised. "What's going on here?"

"They think I'm responsible for my husband's death. They won't leave me alone." She explained; she was trying to hide the necklace and also she was trying to look normal, but I could see her hands shaking. Once again I could see her becoming my best friend again. She would be apprehensive like that when she ran out of her parent's house to go to a gothic performance. She'd have fun, but she knew she was doomed. "Is the portal ready?"

"Yes." I answered quietly, eyeing her suspiciously from head to toe. She saw me staring, but she didn't stop me. She didn't change her attitude. I stepped closer to her and tried to touch her, but she stepped back with an agility I had never witnessed before. I was hurt once more and I was distracted by my own feelings when she was only concerned that I haven't noticed that she'd pull away to save me from the same fate the sergeant had. "Once I've caught this ghost and you're free… will you return to Amity Park with us?"

"I…" She was obviously expecting that question, but I had to ask anyway. I was too blind and too intrigued by her beauty to smell the danger around her. Danger in some women can smell a lot like Chanel #5 to confuse the senses of poor passionate guys like me. "I won't leave this castle." She said seriously, after taking a deep breath.

"You're lonely here." I said, insisting and walking towards her as she kept walking back away from me. "I don't understand what's going on with this castle, but you know how snoopy I can be. I will find everything out whether you want me to or not." I spat at her and unlike her attitude towards the police a few minutes ago she didn't face me with that poisoning courage. She seemed to shrink back to her vulnerable state and she didn't fight me anymore.

"It's no use running away from here. I tried it." She said quietly and I had to take one step closer to listen what she was saying. Finally I had a small response. I was ready to hear her muttering out the truth, but she only said sentimental things to confuse me even more. "This is the place where I found happiness again even if it was eventually taken from me. I'll always be alone and I've accepted my fate."

"It's your choice." I tried to encourage her to speak on. I hadn't noticed that I had somehow trapped her against the wall, but we weren't touching. I could see that she was very worried about it, but I had decided to respect her space and not touch a strand of her hair without permission, as hard as it would be.

"No, it's not a choice!" She cried out and finally I saw the façade fall. She trusted me enough to let desperate tears fall from her eyes right in front of me. Today I think that it took more guts to break down than to stand her position. "In Africa I had this stupid saving the world thing. I put myself in the middle of a guerrilla to save the children of a poor village and I got myself shot." She explained. "I jumped in front of a small kid."

I immediately understood why she was so affectionate towards Cole and the kids in the city. Every kid was the mirror of that one she had saved.

"Alexander fixed my wound and brought me to Italy for a treatment, but because of the shot something very precious was taken from me." She said quietly. "And he accepted that and married me anyway."

"You're saying that I wouldn't accept your condition, whatever it is?" I felt like she had slapped me in the face. She didn't trust me like she had trusted her husband. Oh that ridiculous, snobby man who had taken my best friend before I had the chance! That faceless ghost who I hated more than any other arch enemy!

"You don't understand!" She raised her voice defiantly and I knew how to pick up a challenge. I was going to reply, I was going to sentence myself to death by grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, but I didn't. Cole decided to interrupt us by walking in with his little arms carrying more chocolate than he could hold.

"Don't fight." He said to us, looking in verge of tears.

"We're not fighting, honey." Sam said to him, using that small time to walk as far away from me as possible. She picked Cole up in her arms, with her back turned to me so I couldn't see her expression. "Danny," She sighed as she continued our argument. "I've paid you to get this ghost and nothing else. Please do your job." And then she walked off to the dining room to control how much chocolate Cole would eat.

I was stunned – for lack of better words. It took me a while to comprehend that she was treating me like an employee once more. But then…. That's what I was… I was just someone she had paid to do my job. I was nothing else to her. Knowing that only inspired me to work harder to get to the bottom of the mystery that surrounded her. If she was a murderer I'd put her in jail with the same lack of compassion she had showed me.

At that same night I would eat my words with a bitter sauce. I informed Tucker of what had happened immediately after she left me alone and he was much surprised and almost offended that I doubted Sam's innocence in that case.

"Danny, Sam isn't a criminal. If she has anything to do with her husband's death, that would be an accident. I can't believe you'd have doubts about the girl we grew up with." I must admit I wasn't surprised at his reaction. When a father sees his son enamored with a new mother figure he's bound to defend her for his son' sake.

"I just want to stick with the skepticism." I answered and when I said that I heard a gasp coming from the door. Both Tucker and I turned around to see a very pale – and obviously offended – Sam standing there with Cole staring at us with eyes that showed betrayal and stubbornness.

"I'm sorry to interrupt." Quickly, she covered her surprise to hear such cruel words coming out of a supposed friendly mouth. "Dinner is served."

I couldn't remember more awkward moment in my life such as that one. Sitting down by the side of a woman who knew I feared she was murderer and my best friend, who was sipping his soup quietly, sticking to Sam's innocence to the end. I must admit I'm jealous of his unbreakable loyalty to her. I wish I had been that loyal.

Cole was sitting down quietly in a corner, playing with a plushy dog Sam had given him to keep him busy.

"Tucker, could you keep Cole with you tonight? I have some work to finish and I can't keep an eye on him." Sam said in a low voice so Cole wouldn't hear her. Tucker nodded and smiled at her. "Maybe you should show him the towers. There's a telescope in the north one."

After saying that, she stood up, leaving her untouched plate. She tightened the scarf around her neck and walked elegantly out of the room, with the hurry of a feline about to catch the prey. I glanced at Tucker's disapproving look. He knew what I'd do, but he didn't stop me anyway.

I turned invisible and followed her through the cold stone corridors to the second floor where she entered the drawing room and locked it with a huge skeleton key she always kept in her pocket. I was very careful to not become visible again because she was looking around the room suspiciously as if expecting me (or maybe her ghost husband?) to show up.

Two minutes later, she stepped closer to the burning fireplace and placed some logs in it to build up the fire. After that, she opened a drawer and picked stacks of old yellowish papers. I could see she had cut off and kept some newspaper articles. I only had time to read the words 'Mr. Schwarz' and 'wife' before she threw the articles in the fire. That only raised my suspicion even more.

She unfolded her husband's will and spent some long minutes reading it. Obviously he had given it all to her along with some cash from his life insurance. The reason for killing him was right in front of my eyes, or so I wanted to believe. She must have a real good alibi to escape that one.

But my new evidence was thrown to the fire with the articles. I was shocked to see that she was destroying the only document that would provide her some financial stability in the future. In her lapse, she threw the will in the fire, the protocol of Mr. Schwarz insurance, his diaries, her own diaries and many photographs.

She fell on the floor sobbing like a little girl and I almost gave into my feelings and made myself visible to hug and comfort her. That small tantrum was proof enough for me that she had really loved Alexander and even if she had really killed him, it was out of a bigger reason than just money.

Nowadays in the cold nights when the memories of her haunt me, it's exactly that moment I see. When she was hopelessly lying on the floor, crying among their happy pictures, among the passionate letters they had shared in Africa. I see her sobbing inconsolably the cruel fate she and her husband had had.

As she cried, I walked around the room and the only thing that she had left intact that caught my attention was her husband's small circular glasses placed on top of a folded paper. I reached closer and all I could read was the title "Mrs. Schwarz's Will." So Sam had written her own will already. I understood at that moment how afraid she was to die; I had thought she feared her husband's ghost would kill her.

As the time passed her sobs started quieting down, but her breathing became heavier. She sat down on the couch, with a hand on her forehead, glancing at the clock from time to time as if waiting for something to happen. I had never seen her that anxious before and I admit it scared me.

When the clock struck midnight a chilly breeze blew out the candles in the room. The papers and pictures flew around and Sam stared apprehensively at the wall. Her necklace started glowing and a thin light came out of it and slowly started to form the outline of a human, just like a genie when it's released from the lamp.

A moment later a man was standing in the middle of the room. He was tall, blond and so muscular that he normally would have been considered 'huge'. His piercing green eyes and ghostly pale skin immediately made me realize who he was. Mr. Schwarz was the image of a wealthy man who always had everything he wanted his whole life and wasn't used to failure.

"Hello honey." He said with his voice dripping sarcasm. Sam smirked back, but I could say she was terrified, but she was ready to face him. She was sure she could face him because we had the portal ready to capture him. "You were a badass today." He said that while removing his shirt. I knew what would happen as soon as he started unbuckling his jeans, but I couldn't move. I wasn't scared, but perplex.

"You'll be gone today." Sam said, standing up from the couch, saying slowly and in a hissing voice that made me remind a poisonous snake. "I have ghost hunters in this house ready to get you and make you pay for what you've done."

"I've already paid, honey, remember?" He laughed dryly, finding the situation very amusing and it only made Sam angrier. Her jaw tightened and she turned around, marching towards the door with her hands closed in fists probably to get Tucker or me so we could get rid of her husband's ghost.

Mr. Schwarz flew in front of her blocking her way out and she glared at him furiously. Her hands were shaking as if she was in the verge of slapping his arrogant face. He, on the other hand, was very calm and put a hand on her small back to bring their hips closer. I could say that infuriated her and I was very angry myself at such a scene. I wasn't used to see Sam being tormented like that. Even in our years back in high school the bullies wouldn't take it so hard on any of us.

"Yes, I've paid already. As I remember you pushed me down the stairs so cowardly that I couldn't believe it!" He laughed, kissing her jaw as she shut her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the feeling, since she couldn't fight him off. "Too bad your plan backfired. You wanted to get rid of me and now we're stuck together forever."

"So romantic." Sam replied sarcastically and I remembered of the little girl she had been, speaking all her sarcastic lines with a tired expression. So indeed she had killed her husband and just like he said her plan backfired, but still that didn't justify him controlling her life and taking advantage of her every night.

And then he threw her on the couch and she didn't fight, as if she too used to it happened every night that she gave up fighting. She just waited patiently for him to take his claim on her and go away, disappearing inside the necklace.

I couldn't take it anymore. I was losing control. Nobody treated my Sam like that and her expressionless face only made me want to get rid of that vile ghost as soon as possible.

The lights started flicking and the air inside the room became icy. The furniture started shaking as if an invisible power was causing the whole room to shake. That was a powerful sign of ghost activity.

I snapped and screamed.

"TUCKER IT'S TIME!"

I didn't wait for Tucker, I turned visible and literally flew on Alexander's neck, grabbing from his hair and throwing him away from Sam as hard as I could. He hit the opposite wall and I fired ghost rays at him. I saw Sam sitting up, very surprised at the sudden attack. I was very upset at her as well.

I took out my fury on Alexander, but the one who deserved some beating was Sam. So she was a murderer and I was beating a ghost like a punch bag because she had killed him in the first place. But victim or not, nobody laid a hand on my Sam.

Tucker arrived just in time to capture him inside the thermos. I almost got sucked in with him. I don't think Tucker knew exactly where he was aiming. The ground stopped shaking and the candles were lit up again as if by magic. The room was still very cold, but it didn't bother me. I also realized it didn't bother Sam.

"He's strong!" Tucker suddenly announced. "The thermos won't hold him for long."

"Let's get him inside the portal, quickly!" I said; the thought of having that man on loose again made my blood boil.

"It's not ready!" Tucker said nearly panicking when he saw the thermos shaking as Alexander struggled to get free. "The power is off! We don't have electricity in the house."

"Free him then!" Sam suddenly said, rising from the couch and staring at the clock. When the clock struck half past midnight she held the diamond on her necklace up. It was shining like a lamp.

Tucker looked at me as if asking permission. I was the expert at ghost-fighting; he always looked at me before reaching a decision. I lowered my head tiredly and Tucker opened the thermos. Alexander flew straight to the diamond and got stuck there. The necklace stopped shining and Sam let it go again, breathing heavily and holding her head on her hands as if in a terrible headache.

"You killed him." I said in a low voice. Sam looked up surprised at the accusation and Tucker looked at me, too. "You didn't deny it."

Sam lowered her eyes to the floor and I could see tears escaping from the corner of her eyes and sliding down her pale cheeks. Her neatly manicured fingernails were pricking her skin to the point of draying blood. She took a deep shakily breathe and opened her trembling lips. I must admit I was ready to listen to the confession coming out from her mouth like a blow in the gut taking all my fury and hate towards her betrayal and turn it in pure conscience torment.

But she bit her lower lip, turned around and ran out of the door. I followed her just a fraction of second later, but the corridor outside was empty and there wasn't the sound of her heels. It was like she had disappeared as soon as she had stepped out of the room.

At that moment I was highly suspicious that the castle had secret doors and passages as well.

**Is the suspense killing you? It's killing me, too. I wasn't sure if I should have revealed the husband's ghost so soon, but hey, there are lots of secrets I'm still hiding, so… I guess it's time for Danny to know who the enemy is. I'll probably just be able to update in a month. This story is a bit difficult to write. I need to pay attention to every little detail so everything will make sense when I reveal the truth behind…… everything. Lol. So, keep the reviews coming, I will need a lot of inspiration for the next chapter! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

EDIT - Just fixed a typpo. Thank you,Haileyamandar! And I forgot to mention that this chapter is for Alora! There you go, girl. I hope you have more time so we can chat more often.

I couldn't sleep that night, as if I had gotten any decent sleep since Sam walked back into my life to add up the daily headaches. It was four in the morning when I was able to close my eyes and drift off for about an hour.

I woke up startled with the feeling of cold feminine fingers brushing my cheeks softly, slightly touching. I quickly grabbed her hands before she could run away again and opened my eyes to look straight into hers with the coldest feeling I could show her. But my reproving look didn't last long. I could clearly read in her face that she had been crying the whole night. She looked tired and she faced me at that moment trying to perform a cold stare as well, but all I could see in her eyes were sadness, hurt and betrayal.

She was sitting down on the bed next to me as if she was there with the only intention of telling me the truth, or part of it. I felt like I was the one who had to say the first words or she would never get the courage to start the argument herself.

"Didn't you get any sleep?" It was a rhetorical question. She was wearing the same clothes from the night before. She shook her head and looked at her lap, as if in shame. I let go of her right hand and she put it on her chest, on top of her necklace and closed it in a fist. "Where did you go last night?"

"I wandered around the castle." She said simply. "Danny, I'm sorry about last night, but… how much did you see?" She wasn't stupid. She never had been. She knew I was in the drawing room long before I cried out for Tucker.

"Enough to know you pushed your husband down the stairs and now he's haunting you for revenge." I said firmly and she closed her eyes as if she was feeling an intense moral pain. I was so disappointed at her. I wanted her to start screaming at me that it wasn't true and slap me senseless until I comprehended her innocence. I was desperate for a spontaneous reaction like the old Sam would have five years ago if I even dreamed of accusing her of such atrocity. I laughed dryly and ran my hand over my unruly hair "And here I was thinking you were the victim of this game."

"I'm not asking you to understand." She said quietly, holding back her emotions as if she could just swallow them and pretend they never were suffocating her. "I'm asking you if you're going to continue with the process of catching him."

There was the slap I was waiting for, but it came in a figurative way. I didn't expect her to say such thing and I was as stunned as I would be if she had just marked her five fingers on my cheek. Once again I was rudely reminded that I was a mere employee; that my job there was to catch the ghost I was paid for and not to be judging her innocent or guilty.

I was caught in between professional ethic and a moral dilemma the same way I was torn in seeing the little girl I had fake-out make-outs with and the cold bloodied murder that she was making me believe she was.

"Tell me about the necklace. Is he trapped in there the whole day?" I suddenly asked, but my pettiness wouldn't stop bugging me. "How did it happen?"

"The diamond in this necklace cost the life of three African children. As punishment for the trade the tribe's wizard cursed Alexander. He would be bound to spend eternity trapped inside the diamond with only half an hour of freedom each day. Alexander laughed at first, then he made this beautiful necklace and gave it to me." She explained quietly, but she held up the stone and I could see small cracks in it. "But lately he's been finding ways to send his message through the stone even when he's imprisoned."

I knew better than to ask her how it was possible was that he became a ghost trapped in a diamond. I had seen many weird things in my life to know that the ghost zone created the most different ghosts. It was the same as asking why Ember's hair was a blue flame or how Skulker got his high-tech suit. I've seen poltergeists and I've seen ghosts that looked exactly like they did when they were alive. I've seen ghosts that didn't know that they were dead and I've seen ghosts who refused to abandon the life they lead before departing.

"I don't understand how you would get involved with someone who promoted guerrillas in Africa to get cheap diamonds." I shook my head and tried to not look into her eyes. I tried very hard to ignore her reasons and I tried to not get hurt by her actions, but I couldn't. She had been my best friend, the first girl I really fell in love with and never stopped loving her. I lived years in hope that she'd get better and return to Amity Park and heal the wounds she had opened when she left.

I couldn't pretend to be just an employee anymore. She had been part of my life and I couldn't treat her as a mere client and it didn't matter how much she wanted to be treated as one.

I was going to tell her how important she had been to me and how much I wanted to drop the act and show her I was still by her side, but before I could even think of the right words to put it, she stood up from the bed and walked to the window. The bright fog outside made it impossible for us to see beyond the canal.

I watched her as her soft hands reached for the zipper behind her dress. I started panicking, but I didn't mutter a sound. Was she trying to seduce me? Was she trying to make me forget the horrible crime she committed by giving into her charms? I admit it was a very tempting idea. But she had other thoughts going through her mind.

The dress slowly slipped to the floor and she stepped out of it with her elegant high heeled shoes. I was starting to sweat and mentally begged her to leave the high heels on. She took off her hat and undid the loose knot her hair was tied in and let it cascade down her shoulders in beautiful curls revealing a length I had never seen her wear.

She was left wearing black panties, bra and mid-thigh pantyhose. She turned around to look at me and all the seducing atmosphere was gone as soon as I saw her eyes shining with tears. The bruises from the night before were still visible on her skin. I was reminded of how she had looked lying unconscious on my couch the day I saw her in Amity Park. She looked innocent, hurt and abandoned in pain.

And then she reached down and hooked her fingers on her panties and pulled them down. I tried to not let my eyes wander down, but I'm a guy and I couldn't help it. Before I could look at her treasure I found a scar in the shape of a star right below her belly, in the center of her pelvis, probably where her womb was. She saw me staring and put a hand on the scar, with her delicate manicured fingers hiding it.

"I was shot trying to protect the kid." She finally said and then she decided to start a digression so I would understand it better. "I started dating Alexander on UN camp while he was treating the sick people from a village that had been attacked. I naively believed he was there to save those people, I believed he was the ideal humanitarian man I was looking for my whole life."

I felt a pain in my chest when she said that. So I spent my entire teen hood saving American citizens from ghost attacks and it wasn't humanitarian enough to turn on her interest on me.

"And then our camp was attacked because we were healing the tribe considered under government protection. The rebels started shooting women and children, but they didn't touch anybody from UN. The leader stepped out to talk to Alexander. I saw three little brothers going after him saying their mom was dead, but Alexander ignored them. The leader gave him a small bag full of diamonds and said that if he wanted to keep getting those he'd have to stop helping the tribe. Alexander lowered his head and stepped away and I saw the leader holding his gun against the kids and I ran in front of them."

I knew the kids had died even if she had stepped in front of them. When she turned around to look out of the window I saw the same star scar on her back, meaning the bullet went in and out of her body, killing the kid anyway. I immediately understood why she was so affectionate towards Cole and all Venetian kids. She saw in every single one of them that kid she couldn't save with her own body.

"Alexander took me to Kenya in a helicopter and I could get some emergency treatment there. I remember waking up and seeing giraffes running in the savanna outside my window. Next he brought me to Italy... Turin. I… recovered there and Alexander proposed. He gave me this necklace as a wedding gift and told me to never take it off. Later, after we married, I found out this diamond was in between those he got from the leader before he killed the children. I took the necklace off for the first time in two years and Alexander got very mad. Then we started fighting and our relationship was never the same."

"It was when he started controlling everything you did, where you went and what you wore." I said quietly. She nodded and slipped her panties back on. Next was her dress and she tied her hair up once more.

"I need peace, Danny. I'm hoping you can give me that." She was about to leave my room when her necklace brightened up again. I saw her eyes widening in pure terror as two smoky hands came out of her necklace and wrapped themselves on my throat, trying to strangle me. "Danny! No!"

She screamed on top of her lungs as I fought to free myself from those hands. I went ghost and froze the smoky hands before I ran out of air and broke it away from my neck, making shattered ice fly in every direction.

She was on the floor, trembling and looking at me as if she had been about to witness my death.

"I'm sorry." She sobbed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She said repeatedly and I stepped towards her, not understanding why she was so terrified since I've been through worse. "I shouldn't have undressed. I should've known!"

It was an innocent declaration, but I immediately connected the dots. Alexander would punish her and whoever had contact with her when he thought the situation would have anything romantic. That French guy a couple of days before in San Marco's square had sentenced himself to death just by kissing her hand and the sergeant the day before, too. She had wrapped her arms around him knowing Alexander would get angry and kill him.

She was using her husband's wrath as a weapon when she needed it. That was very clever.

"Why don't you just take the diamond off and throw it in the ocean?" I suddenly asked. Her husband would never know what she did if he was lying on the bottom of the ocean.

"I can't." She said quietly, standing up on her weak knees and wiping the tears from her face.

"Why not?" I insisted and I was very careful to not touch her and have to fight another angry impulse from the imprisoned ghost.

"It won't come off. It's cursed."

And then she turned her back on me and disappeared out of the door. I wouldn't see her again until breakfast two hours later.

I was puzzled. I had never seen a human cursed before. Curses worked very well with ghosts, but it was very rare to see a human believing he or she had been cursed. I was highly suspicious that even after everything she told me she still was keeping something. She hadn't confirmed or denied the accusation that she had killed her husband.

I was growing tired of that game. It oddly felt like the missing pieces were the dots which she was manipulating the truth in order to keep Tucker and me by her side. Indeed, she made I sound like she had been the victim of the circumstances, she had married in a rush and her husband turned out to be a jerk, but she wasn't innocent if she used his wrath to take revenge on people she didn't like.

Deciding that it was better to tell Tucker what happened, I stepped out of my room in the cold corridor outside and marched straight to Tucker's room. He was missing all important and spooky events in that castle. It was time for him to be more present in our case.

If we caught Alexander's ghost that night I believed I'd be able to free Sam from her wife and widow responsibilities and I would take her back to Amity Park with me. Somehow I realized that Sam had been herself all along. In high school she would hit, curse and rebel against those who forced her to be someone she wasn't. She was terrified of the situation she was in so she didn't fight back impulsively.

By the time I woke Tucker up I was confused. The little boy inside me believed Sam was innocent and the professional ghost catcher repeated inside my head that I had seen that situation a dozen times and that she was guilty, she wasn't terrified of anything, she was purely controlling the investigation.

"Tucker, wake up. Sam just told me what happened to her in Africa. Wake up." I knew Tucker better than any therapist so I knew he wouldn't wake up right away. I was very patient and shook him for about two minutes before he started to stir.

"What the hell you want, man? It's early." Tucker mumbled, trying to hide his head on the pillow.

"We need to power up a generator so we will have electricity to catch the ghost tonight." I explained and Tucker sighed angrily, picking his glasses on the night table and sitting up to stare at me. "While we install it I'll tell you everything that happened this morning."

We needed to plug the generator to the fuses on the main panel so it would load quicker even if the house were out of power for some hours. I didn't ask for Sam's authorization, I simply traced back the wires until I found the panel on the second floor's corridor just outside the drawing room in the east wing.

"So indeed she was the victim of a controlling and violent husband." Tucker concluded after I told him the story. "I doubt she had the intention to kill him, though. Sam's the kind of girl who would contract a lawyer to deal with the situation."

I thought so, too, but the whole murder thing was bugging me a lot. If she really ended up killing him was it to defend herself?

We heard a crash inside one of the rooms and we immediately ran there to check. The noise came from the third door next to the drawing room where the library was. We found Cole sitting there holding a pile of books he had accidentally dropped.

"Cole, you should be more careful. You could have gotten hurt." Tucker said, picking his son up. I decided to not interfere. I picked up the books on the floor and put them on a stack. Absently I read the titles. They were all about pain medicine and treatments.

"Therapy for Spine Damage." I read out loud and Tucker walked closer to see what I was staring at. I remembered the star on her back that morning where the bullet had come off her body.

"What is it, Danny?" Tucker asked anxiously.

"I think Sam's in great pain even if she doesn't show it." I said rhetorically. "I think her spine was damaged by the bullet." It made sense to me and it also explained why there were so many morphine bottles inside her bathroom's cabinet.

"It doesn't make sense, dude. If her spine was damaged exactly where you told me scar was then she probably wouldn't be able to walk again." Tucker said. He had taken some lessons in medicine a few years ago before dropping college to open the ghost hunting office with me. He probably knew what he was talking about so I chose to believe him. "I could look at the morphine bottles and see if the components were for light pain or extreme pain."

"Please, do that." I said. I had something else on my mind. As the generator powered up I was going to ask the only employee that had seen both Alexander and Sam together and didn't run away after his passing: the man that sailed the boats.

I found Sam cooking lunch in the kitchen and kindly asked her to call the poor man so I could pay a visit to the city. When she asked if I needed anything she could provide I said it was a bigger filter for the ghost portal. She couldn't disagree with that.

The man arrived about ten minutes later and I jumped on the gondola and asked him to sail away. Sam watched up from the dock and when we were far enough so she would hear us I decided to start asking questions.

"I'm sorry to have called you Mr…"

"Cavallera, signore."

"Mr. Cavallera, as you know I'm trying to capture Mr. Schultz's ghost but in order to do that I need to know how he was in life." I said politely to make him trust me enough to answer my questions truthfully.

"He was a very good man, sir. He only looked out for Mrs. Schultz's happiness. Many people must have told you otherwise, but I assure you he loved her and helped her every single day of her life. She was his miracle. He'd never do any harm to her."

"I see." Obviously that Mr. Cavallera had a distorted version of the facts. What I had witnessed the night before was not the act of a caring husband. My hopes to get some answer from him went down the drain once more.

"He treated her wounds daily. The nurse that lived in the castle with them almost never touched her. He was the one tending her all the time. He was very sad when she stopped walking." Mr. Cavallera had tears on his eyes as he said that and I knew it was very important. So Sam had stopped walking once?

"Was it because of the shot?" I asked, but I tried not to show him how expectant I was to hear his answer.

"Oh yes. Poor girl. She walked normally for about ten months, but then she started limping and eventually she could only spend her days sitting on a wheel chair." He said and I was perplexed. She seemed to be walking normally to me. I couldn't spot a single problem on her. And those damn high heels were proof enough to me. "The cook told me Mr. Schultz knew that day would come and he didn't let her out of the castle anymore so anyone would see her in her fragile situation. He swore to cure her."

"And then what happened? How come she's walking now?"

"It's a mystery, sir. We know that one day she went to sleep and spent three weeks inside her room. Mr. Schultz would go in and out, sometimes very pale, sometimes angry and sometimes he cried. Nobody was allowed inside, he swore to kill whoever entered that room and disturbed his wife." Mr. Cavallera stopped pushing the boat and sat down in front of me. He picked a thermos full of eggnog and offered me some. I gladly accepted and sat there to hear what else he would tell me. The fog around us made it impossible to know where we were going.

"I believe the threat was what drove the employees away." I encouraged him to speak.

"Most of them, yes. The cook, the cleaner and nurse remained even through Mr. Schultz violent threats. They all loved Mrs. Schultz very much to leave her there with a panicking husband. The cook told me the three of them had begged him to take her to specialists that he couldn't cure her alone and when he refused they planned to break into the room while he was asleep and remove Mrs. Schultz to the nearest hospital." He gave out a dry laugh and looked around. The fog was slowly fading.

"Did they do it?"

"I don't know. I think they tried, but Mr. Schultz must have fired them once he found out because the three of them weren't anywhere to be seen the morning after." His face brightened after saying that and he looked up to the sky and made the sign of the cross. "The same day a miracle happened. Mrs. Schultz came out of the front door walking as if she had never had spine damage, asking me to sail her to the nearest police station. Mr. Schultz had really cured her while everybody doubted it, but at a high price. She came out frantically wanting the police because she had found him lying on the stairs."

"When did it happen?"

"Both Mrs. Schultz miracle recovery and her husband's death happened on the same day, exactly one year ago."

How come nobody had told me that Sam had had spine damage? I couldn't understand why any newspaper in town told the story on her point of view. It was as if nobody knew she had ever been sick. They just saw her walking around elegantly and immediately envied her luck.

I thanked Mr. Cavallera and returned to the castle to find Tucker. On the dinning room I passed by Sam feeding Cole. I smiled at them quickly and climbed up the stairs as calmly as my heart allowed between fast beats urging me to run as quick as possible. The answer was just a few clues away and I needed to share it.

Tucker was sitting inside the drawing room in front of table, looking oddly pale and with several bottles of medicine and books in front of him. He was holding a paper in front of his eyes when I walked in.

"Shush, close the door, quick." He said and I closed the door obediently. "Is she still busy with Cole?" He asked and I nodded.

"What's going on?" I asked, sitting down by his side.

"It's odd and I'm afraid this is one of the things she's hiding from us." Tucker said, handling me the paper. It was her Will; the oneI had seen the night before but wasn't able to read. It was dated one year before, exactly one week before Mr. Schultz died.

_I, Samantha Jane Manson, a resident Venice, Italy, natural of Amity Park, United Stated of America, being in sound mind during all my twenty two years of age do hereby make and declare my last will and testament. _

_I'm currently married to Alexander Allen Schultz who will be referred to herein as my spouse. I currently have no children and any children that may be declared as mine must be through the process of adoption with my own signature and agreement._

_Article One: I hereby name and declare my spouse to administer my state and lands I've acquired in Kenya under the protected area to grow animals feared of extinction. The state may not be sold unless its abandoned and risks to ruin. In this case the state must be donated only for environmental institutions signing a term of responsibility to preserve the species. _

_Article Two: I hereby donate all my clothing and jewelry to the UN with the only purpose of using it to send more supplies and aid to the families in Ethiopia. _

_Article Three: I name and declare Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley to administer my property located at 12__th__ Gloom Street, Amity Park, and I declare that they have claim on everything inside the property. _

_Article Four: I direct my spouse spend my personal finances on my burial and payment of funerary debts including casket, burial marker and funerary services. My spouse is also authorized to invite and gift any honorary clergymen if he judges necessary and also to pay for travel expenses of my friends Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley and their family members to attend my funeral. _

_Final Article: I also declare that the castle I live in Venice isn't shared by matrimonial arrangements and it belongs only to my spouse._

The following was her signature and the Will's Testator's.

"She wrote this before Mr. Schultz died." I said to myself and Tucker, being very close to me was able to hear it.

"And she seemed to love him and not detest him as everyone said." Tucker added. "And she also seemed to believe she would die before him."

I was a little out of my mind after reading her Will. I was wondering why she would leave her house in Amity Park for us and why she wanted us to attend her funeral so badly. She was a morbid person since I've met her, but I never thought she would get to the point of writing a Will so young. Maybe she had planned suicide when she was confined to that wheel chair, if the story was true.

"I just heard from Mr. Cavallera that she was very sick a few weeks before Mr. Schultz died." I explained. I had a horrible headache at that time. "We must search in every room in this castle. We must look for a wheel chair."

"It won't be easy to search all rooms." Tucker sighed, standing up. "Some doors are locked and she keeps the key in her pocket."

"I'll just have to go ghost then. Keep an eye open for secret passages as well." I told him and immediately I knew I wasn't after the ghost anymore. I wanted to know how sick my Sam really was and if she was still in danger. I forgot about the murder, I forgot about her odd behavior. All I wanted to know was if she was suffering and if I could help her.

"Danny, wait. There's one more thing." Tucker said. "If she was ever sick she was cured at least one year ago. The morphine bottles have all expired several months ago."

"I heard it was a miracle. But I don't believe in miracles. I want the truth."

**Ok, I just realized that writting a mystery is much more dificult than I thought. You readers are very clever and would figure it all out very quickly if I just wrote one line wrong. I hope it was worth the wait! The next will come shortly. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review! By the way... 4 chapters and 101 reviews?! Wow! I'm flattered people! Thank you!**


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